Five Nights At Freddy’s Movie Gets Delayed

Five Nights at Freddy’s has hit a snag in the development of its upcoming movie, with the game’s creator finding issues with the script.

Generally, when a video game gets a movie adaptation you see a lot of liberties being taken with the content. Sometimes to a point where you can hardly call it an adaptation at all.

The Five Nights at Freddy’s movie seems to be facing the opposite problem, as it seems that the game’s creator Scott Cawthon has canned the script and started anew.

Warner Bros. has announced the film adaptation back in 2015 when they acquired the rights to bring the game to the big screen. At the time, Roy Lee, David Katzenberg, and Seth Grahame-Smith were all on board to produce it. Following that announcement, Gil Kenan was brought on to direct the film and co-write it with Tyler Burton Smith.

Fast forward a year and a half, where not only is the film’s script getting completely redone, but Warner Bros and Kenan are no longer involved as well. To fill in the blacks quick, back in March 2017, Blumhouse Productions was tapped to take over production of the film, with Jason Blum confirming the announcement himself. February 2018 saw Chris Columbus locked in to direct the film with a potential 2020 release date being the goal. However, with this newest turn of events, it seems fans of the games might have to wait even longer to see this film hit the big screen.

Cawthon himself posted a rather blunt update on the game’s forums regarding the new status of the film. Apparently, both Blum and Columbus greenlit the script that had been written, but it was Cawthon himself that found it to be lacking. Over the summer Blum had gotten fans hyped about an update that was “coming soon”, I doubt this is the update fans were hoping for.

“Ok guys, I had a script written; Jason liked it, and Chris Columbus liked it too, but I tossed it. I had a different idea for it, one that I liked better. I take responsibility for this delay; it’s my fault.”

“I’m determined to find the right story. I’m sticking to what I’ve always said, either the right movie gets made or no movie gets made. I hate delaying a project that’s already seen so many delays, but I have to go with my instincts on what I think will be exciting and interesting, and what I think the fanbase will really want to see. If that means that I have to start over ten more times, then that’s what I’m going to do. The good thing is that each attempt gets better and better, in my opinion. So, despite the delays, it’s going in the right direction.”

Honestly, it’s refreshing to see such a hands-on approach being taken with a movie adaptation. Most video game to movie transitions fail, so while it’s unfortunate that we might not see this film by 2020, if it’s done right that’s all that should matter, right?

Cawthon went on to say that the Five Nights at Freddy’s film, along with its possible sequels, will coincide with the first three games in the franchise. “The games after ‘Five Nights at Freddy’s 3’ will not exist in the movie universe. Like it or hate it, I felt that this was the best portion of the storyline to really focus in on,” explained Cawthon. Honestly, it is a smart way to prevent the films from becoming another exhaustive, money grabbing, unnecessary franchise.

Five Nights at Freddy’s is Cawthon’s baby, his own creation. No one gets these games and their lore better than this man. Him having this much input, and this much say into how the film gets made is a reassurance that, hopefully, when it does release it will be something Cawthon and fans alike can be proud of.